me: "But how do I know that if I buy a new laptop it won't fail the same way?"

Rep"The new boards have been redesigned to remedy this issue"

me:"Issue? I thought you just said there wasn't a known defect? Why did you feel compelled to "redesign" something if there was not a known problem?"

Rep:" That's correct-there's no known defect with your model"

And so on and so on..................

I hate it when people lie-because they're making the assumption that you are stupid and believe them. I'd almost feel better if they said, "Yeah, the unit kinda sucks, but HP isn't prepared to address the concerns beyond the terms of the warranty. Wanna speak to sales about your next unit? We'll flip you a generous coupon for $37.00 that you can apply to buying supplies from shopHP.com." Shipping and Handling extra

Re: dv9700 GPU Failure - 8600M GS Nvidia GPU

The GPU in my dv9700 failed at just short of the 3 year mark. I decided to try a motherboard replacement.(~$100 from eBay) instead of buying an equivalent new system (~$2000 from HP). In the process of replacing it I discovered a possible source of the problem. The issue is that the heatsink assembly comes in two pieces. There is the main unit that has the fan and cools the CPU, and a secondary unit that sits next to it and cools the GPU. They are separated by a small 1/8th inch gap, and over time dust and lint collect in that gap. When I pulled the fan I discovered that the GPU cooler was about 80% blocked! No wonder it failed.

Design flaw? Yes, but a subtle one that would only show up after extended in-field use. The real kicker is that cleaning it is extremely difficult. The system is build around the motherboard. It has to be completely disassembled to get fan out. One thing that might help is to try to suck it out through the exhaust vent with a vacuum. The fan is in the left-rear corner. The main exhaust for the CPU blows out the back. The exhaust for the GPU blows out to the left.